The Colors Of Red
by Assirym
Summary: Before going to find her end the Seer thinks back on the time she spent growing up in a small simple village. Red Seer. One Shot.


**A/N:** Like... don't even ask, okay? I don't know where this came from. For the story to work the Seer (Who I've named Claire) would have still met with Rumple before the ogre war but she would have been much older. So, after the majority of this story takes place. It's short and rambly... uh, thanks for reading :)

* * *

There was a time before magic had taken it's hold on me that I was just a girl. A blind girl and admittedly a little odd but just a girl. No gift, no higher purpose, no visions.

My life was mundane, I lived in a small village, orphaned at a young age but I had been cared for. An older woman by the name of Arania, though I took to calling her Nana, found me. I had only been three, small and abandoned, cast aside for my differences but that hadn't mattered to Nana. She didn't act as if my blindness made me worthless she showed me that it made me stronger. Nana taught me how to live and enjoy my life how it was given to me when no one else had stepped up to the task.

I grew and came into my own, learning how to manage in a world full of people with sight when I had darkness. It wasn't easy but I'll never owe so much to anyone than I do to my Nana. She more than saved me, she gave me life and that is something I could never repay.

We lived rather poorly in our small village but that wasn't something that seemed to bother Nana, so it hadn't bothered me either. I was grateful for everything we had and wanted for little else.

There were treats sometimes. I remember we'd walk into town for the rich milk and thick honey that could be found at the markets. Spoils.

It was there that I met her for the first time, Red. We were just children but I always felt that there was something different about her, something more. Red was a sweet girl, that day in the market we couldn't of been older than seven and she'd run straight into me by way of greeting. I still remember thinking how odd it was that I hadn't heard her footsteps coming. I never did, Red tread so light and graceful, it was impossible to keep track, even in later years with my ears fine tuned to my surroundings.

I'd fallen back to the ground, knocked easily off my feet by the force of her and as soon as my body was still again all I could hear was the string of apologies. It made me laugh and though I'd never laid eyes on anyone's face much less a girl who I had never met before I could practically see her pouty expression.

"Why are you laughing I just knocked you down?" Red asked with a huff, her hands sliding questioningly over shoulders to help me up, as if she was unsure if I'd mind her to touch me.

I accepted the help, placing my own hand over hers in a small show of gratitude. "I'm not sure." I spoke honestly, facing what I had guessed to be her general direction. "I supposed because no one has every said that many sorry's to me before."

She was silent, watching me and I knew what she had been thinking before she even spoke. I had a habit of knowing what people were thinking without them telling me with their voices.

"You can't see, can you?" Her words were a bit sad but there was no pity and mostly it was curiosity that won out and rang though in them. Just a question and that was all.

I shook my head and stated a simple 'no' and then I felt her hand in mine. She took it into her own an shook it firmly, formal like men, and told me her name. Back then I thought the name Red was the most brilliant thing. A color. I'd never seen red but somehow I knew in my mind when she touched me, that was what I was imagining. A color, deep and rich, I'd never known gifted to me by a girls touch.

We became good friends quickly, playing together as children do, bonding over the stories of abandonment in our past. Red had her Granny and I had my Nana and we always had a good laugh over that.

Being friends with Red was the best thing that ever happened to me, I've yet to top it. We grew together, we learned together and tumbled though our adolescence, becoming woman together. Red was my first love.

I didn't call it love then, when we were both young girls hungry for knowledge and experiences. It was Red that put the name to it though I couldn't of been more pleased to hear it.

"Claire?" She'd whispered into my ear, all wrapped up with each other in her bed. The sheets were white, somehow I just knew that. I picture us that way, her smooth clear skin and mine pale and freckled pressed together beneath the tangled white fabric.

I hummed in response, lifting my chin as if I could look at her to be greeted with the light graze of her lips to my nose.

"Have I ever said how beautiful your eyes are?" Red questioned, her fingertips playing lightly at my lower back.

It was an odd thing to say, it wasn't really but no one had ever said anything about my eyes except for their inability to work properly and I had been taken by the compliment.

"What color are they?" I asked her in a low voice, realizing then that I wasn't even sure, questioning if anyone had ever told me.

"They are blue, the brightest blue but more than just that." Red explains, sound wary of her words. "Sometimes I think I can see flecks of color in them, of every color."

"Is that possible?" I'm sure I'd know but then again eyes weren't exactly my specialty.

She laughed at me, pulling me closer. I could feel her chin moving over my hair, the sound of her head shifting against the pillow beneath it. "No, it isn't really."

I remember liking that, having something that wasn't possible. Something that Red found beautiful.

"Your eyes are pretty too." I spoke confidently, knowing that she'd question me. "Sometimes I feel like I can see you. Long dark hair, light clear skin..." I reached up, trailing my fingers through her hair, listening to the sound of her breathing change in surprise. "Your eyes are different too, green usually, I think but sometimes..." I stop speaking for a moment, having to think over what I was going to say, making sure I was getting it right. It all seemed crazy even to me but also, it seemed incredibly right and normal. "Sometimes they seem yellow and sometimes I see other things about you Red. Warmth and thick fur, your eyes practically glowing."

It takes her a while but finally her response come in the form of laughter and affectionate kisses to my cheeks while she calls me mad. But then she puts a name to the feeling in my chest as if its nothing, as if she is certain and it almost makes sense as to why it is I can picture her.

"I love you." She speaks low and sweet against my skin and I didn't have to think about it long before responding, once Red matched the word to the feeling it was easy to say out loud.

"I love you too."

That night was the last time I laid with Red, the last time I was in her presence because the following day they came for me.  
The family that had left me so long ago charged into my life and stole me away from everything I knew.

I'd come to know that I hadn't been left for my blindness, I had been lost. My mother killed in a silent war raging between the people blessed with sight and those who wish to posses it. I was a seer.

There wasn't a day that I didn't miss home, Nana and Red. Most of all Red. Once I had my ritual, a practice that would have been less mutilating and scarring had it been done as a child, I checked up on them both from time to time. My eyes pressed by magic and tradition into my palms, strengthening my minds eye, an ability that had always been there.

All those times I thought I could see her, what I imagined her to be in my thoughts, they were real.

I watched her through her struggle the first time she discovered what she was, the wolf. I prayed that I could go to her, comfort her but by taking up my place with my clan I was bound to them, tied by invisible ropes to their side.

Seeing was not a gift, it took everything from me. My life, my loved ones, my Red. So this man, this evil coward of a man I met many years ago while enslaved by our enemies, he is the answer to my burdens. I know where he'll be, I know what he seeks and I know what he will be all to willing to take from me. Then I can rest.

I can fall back into my secure place of darkness and hold nothing but Red in my heart but first I must travel to him. I'm almost there. I'm almost free.


End file.
